The age of the 'pingdemic' is upon us, but what does that mean for our supermarkets, businesses and transport?

Shops are urging customers to not panic buy, garden waste collections have been cancelled and public transport services are low on drivers.

As 'Freedom Day' came and went and the rules were eased, many fear that a 'pingdemic' could lead to bedlam, due to large numbers of people being told to self-isolate through the NHS app leading to staff shortages and business closures.

Supermarkets, such as Tesco, have explained that their is no need to panic as they have plenty of food, with deliveries arriving at our stores and distribution centres across the UK every day.

However, while there is plenty of food for everyone, Tesco is experiencing sporadic disruption from the industry-wide shortage of HGV drivers and an increase in colleagues self-isolating on a precautionary basis.

This, on top of increased demand, is leading to pockets of temporary low availability across a small number of products, but Tesco has confirmed they are actively managing this and their colleagues are working hard to get shelves fully stocked.

Sainsbury's has also assure it's customers that despite self-isolating rules, there is enough food to go round.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We are working hard to ensure customers can find what they need.

"While we might not always have the exact product a customer is looking for in every store, large quantities of products are being delivered to stores daily and our colleagues are focused on getting them onto the shelves as quickly as they can.”

The UK’s biggest supermarkets have said there was no need for customers to change their shopping habits.

They said any gaps on the shelves were temporary as they awaited deliveries, and were occurring in pockets rather than across supply chains.

The 'pingdemic', the shortage of HGV drivers and the hot weather were all contributing to delivery glitches, grocers said, while stressing to consumers that panic buying would create a problem that did not exist.

Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: “The ongoing ‘pingdemic’ is putting increasing pressure on retailers’ ability to maintain opening hours and keep shelves stocked.

"The Government needs to act fast. Retail workers and suppliers, who have played a vital role throughout this pandemic, should be allowed to work provided they are double vaccinated or can show a negative Covid test, to ensure there is no disruption to the public’s ability to get food and other goods.

"With community cases soaring, the number of healthy retail staff having to self-isolate is rising fast, disrupting retail operations.”

A Lidl spokesman also explained the situation is becoming difficult due to its staff having to isolate.

They said: "Like all other retailers, the situation is becoming increasingly difficult as we have more and more colleagues having to self-isolate after being notified by the Track and Trace system.

"Whilst this is starting to have an impact on our operations, our teams are working hard to minimise any disruption to customers."

People across the county have been noticing a delay in deliveries. A number of customers have reported not receiving their regular deliveries from Milk&More.

The company said in a statement: "We make one million deliveries a week throughout England and our current delivery levels are 95%.

"While the vast majority of our customers are really happy with their service, unfortunately some customers have experienced late or missed deliveries over the last month, for which we are very sorry.

"This is due to a combination of factors including a shortage of drivers (like many other companies, we are finding it difficult to recruit staff), combined with a high number of our colleagues having to isolate as a result of track and trace.

"This is regrettably having an impact on the quality of our service for a small number of our customers.

"We recognise the inconvenience that this has caused these customers.

"We have apologised to those affected and have assured them that we are doing all we can to rectify this issue and return their delivery service to the high standards they rightly expect as soon as possible.

It isn't only the food and shopping industry that is struggling as a result of the 'pingdemic'.

Transport services are also facing delays and shortages of drivers.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach South East said: "We are continuing to run the vast majority of our services across Kent, including all our essential local bus routes, however we have had to change some scheduled journeys as a result of driver shortages.

“Like many other businesses, we're dealing with staff shortages for a variety of reasons at this time, but a big factor is colleagues needing to self-isolate as a result of being contacted through Test and Trace.

“In cases where there is an impact on our services, we are providing live updates to our customers through our app, website and our Twitter feed @StagecoachSE.”

Arriva is also doing all they can to reduce disruption.

Simon Finnie, South Area Managing Director for Arriva, said: "Like other organisations we too have a number of staff who are doing the right thing and following government guidelines by isolating due to being alerted by the NHS track & trace app.

"During this time we will do everything we can to minimise service disruption for our customers."

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